


A Tour, a Show, and a Crush

by orphan_account



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: (not in this part), Animals, Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Comedy, Crushes, Eventual Keith/Lance (Voltron), For the most part, Funny, Gay Keith (Voltron), Gen, Keith & Shiro (Voltron) are Adoptive Siblings, M/M, POV Alternating, The lions aren't actually lions, Zoo, Zookeeper AU, they're other types of animals in the zoo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-06
Updated: 2019-09-06
Packaged: 2020-10-06 16:13:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,346
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20509826
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Lance has recently gotten a job at the Garrison County Zoo and Veronica, his sister who also works there, has offered to take him on a 'professional' tour before he starts working there. Nadia and Sylvio had - somehow - overheard and invited themselves along. Over the course of the tour, Veronica introduces Lance to several of her co-workers.One of which is incredibly hot.Keith does not think he's going to enjoy his first day of having to perform in the 'Voltron Show', but surprisingly, it goes very well. He even meets a cute guy afterwards.Even better, he finds out that cute guy is going to be his co-worker soon.AKA Lance and Keith, future co-workers at a zoo, develop crushes on each other.





	A Tour, a Show, and a Crush

**Author's Note:**

> Just for reference, [here's a map of the zoo that I based it on.](http://www.milwaukeezoo.org/visit/map/)

Lance grins as he enters the Garrison County Zoo. If not for the fact that he's holding the hand of his nephew, Sylvio, he would probably be skipping.

His older sister, Veronica, chuckles as she walks up behind him. She's pulling their niece, Nadia, and the large bag holding their lunch in an old wagon. "I take it you're excited to start working here," she says, smirking.

Lance laughs and looks over his shoulder at her. "What gave it away?"

Veronica hums and shrugs. "Oh, I don't know. Guess I'm just good at reading you."

Lance had recently gotten a job at the zoo, working with the penguins and otters. Veronica also works at the zoo, in the Aviary exhibit. She'd offered to give Lance a 'professional' tour of the zoo before he starts next week on her day off, and he'd said yes. Unfortunately for them, Nadia and Sylvio had overheard them talking about it and invited themselves along.

The four stop at the Zoo Terrace and eat the lunch Lance's mamá had insisted on making for them before starting their trek through the zoo.

Veronica insists they start at the 'Family Farm', where she 'formally' introduces Lance to the cow.

"Lance, this is Kaltenecker," she says, before turning to the cow. "Kaltenecker, this is Lance. He's my little brother and he's going to start working here soon."

Kaltenecker 'moo's in response and Lance smirks and waves at her.

Next, they go to the 'Adventure Africa' exhibit, which is mostly elephants but also has an enclosure with zebras, impalas, and ostriches.

Veronica calls over the keeper in the Elephant Yard, who's scooping up poop. He waves at her and jogs over.

"Hey Veronica," the keeper greets her.

"Where's Ryan?" Veronica asks.

The keeper waves over his shoulder vaguely. "He's with the hippos. They're in the temporary exhibit with the red river hog until construction on their new enclosure is finished. Want me to go get him?"

Veronica shakes her head. "No, it's fine." She gestures to Lance. "This is my little brother, Lance. He starts working here next week and I was hoping you could introduce him to the elephants."

"Totally!" The keeper turns from Veronica to Lance and sticks a hand through the railing for a handshake, which Lance enthusiastically takes. "Hi, I'm Hunk! And these two-" He turns and gestures widely to the two elephants behind him. "-are our Asian Elephant, Gyrgan, and our African Elephant, Yellow." He starts pointing out differences between the two, ways to tell them apart: one's male and one's female, one's forehead is rounder than the other's, one's tusks are more uneven... To be honest, Lance doesn't remember it all as he thanks Hunk and the four of them move away.

They continue through the Africa/Asia/South America area of the zoo, passing the giraffes, rhinos, and camels before coming to a stop in the Big Cats exhibit. Veronica looks around for a second before seemingly remembering something and moving on, out of Africa, Asia, and South America.

Nadia forces them to stop long enough that she can get out of the wagon at the next enclosure, which is a polar bear and some Harbor Seals. She stares at the polar bear in giddy excitement for almost ten minutes before Veronica picks her up and puts her back in the wagon so they can continue, but not before they use the nearby 'Mold-A-Rama' machine to get a 3D-printed statue of the polar bear.

They continue on through the American part of the zoo. Here, there’s a badger, a brown bear, prairie dogs, elk, grizzly bears, and the enclosure with the caribous and Sandhill Cranes before stopping again to get a snack.

Veronica hands Sylvio a twenty-dollar bill and points out the Penguin Cart. She tells him to take his younger sister and get two Dole whips and something for him and Nadia to share. After the two kids take off, she turns to Lance, who's gaping at the otters in the ‘Otter Passage’ exhibit. There are four otters swimming and playing around in the water.

"There were only two otters at the zoo back in Green Bay," he mutters, referencing his old job that he'd quit so he could move closer to the rest of his family.

Veronica chuckles and slings an arm over his shoulder. "Get used to it, little bro. The GCZ is a lot bigger than some dinky old zoo in Green Bay. And don't forget, you also have to work with the penguins." She frowns at the minuscule whimper that escapes her brother's lips. It's the first time Lance has sounded nervous about his new job. She quickly replaces the frown with a smile and lightly shakes Lance. "Don't worry, you'll love it here. Now, let me tell you about the otters. There are four of them, three females and one male. Luxia, Florona, and Swirn are the girls. The boy's name is Blumfump." She pauses and a frown flickers across her face before she continues. "Although, since I don't work with the otters, I couldn't tell you which is which."

Lance throws his head back and laughs at that, partially because he already knew everything his sister had just told him, partially because the last thing she'd said was funny. Before he can say anything though, Nadia and Sylvio have reappeared, carrying a pretzel for them to share, a strawberry Dole whip for Veronica, and a pineapple Dole whip for Lance. Their niece and nephew tug them and the wagon over to the small seating area, where they sit down to enjoy their treats.

"Why'd you talk to the keeper at the elephants, but nowhere else?" Lance asks after he's eaten about a third of his Dole whip.

Veronica hums and sets down her Dole whip, thinking for a second. “Well, I meant to talk to the keeper at the Big Cats, but James, the one that I know better, is also off today. I meant to talk to Ryan at the elephants, but I guess he wasn’t there today. And I figured since we’d already stopped, I didn’t want to seem rude and talked to Hunk anyway. Plus, I figured you two would get along really well.”

Lance nods and scoops another spoon-full of Dole whip into his mouth. “He did seem really nice. I’ll talk to him again once I start working here.”

“Hunk’s probably the nicest keeper here. He’s also really smart, and an amazing cook,” Veronica says.

The four eat for a little longer, Veronica and Lance mostly silent, Nadia cooing over how cute her polar bear statue is, and Sylvio blabbering on about the bats they’re going to see next. Once they’re all done eating, they throw away their garbage, put Nadia back in the wagon, and move on to the ‘Small Mammals’ exhibit.

Veronica guides them through the exhibit, pointing out all of the different types of monkeys and small animals. At one point she stops and waves to a keeper through a small door cracked open in one of the enclosures. “That’s Klaizaap,” she says, “he works with the small mammals, obviously.” Next, they enter the ‘Mammals of the Night’ exhibit, which is a wing in the ‘Small Mammals’ building. Veronica continues to guide them through it, leading them past all of the different nocturnal animals. Nadia jumps out of the wagon at the last enclosure, which is a Fennec Fox but is disappointed when she can’t find it. On the way out of the ‘Small Mammals House’, Sylvio makes them stop and get the 'Mold-A-Rama' bat figure.

The next place they go to is the ‘Aquatic and Reptile Center’. Veronica stops them again here and calls over two of the keepers, who she introduces as Ina Leifsdottir and Katie Holt.

“Ina and Katie work here, with the reptiles and fish. Ina mostly works with the fish, while Katie works more with the reptiles,” she says before turning to the two keepers. “This is my little brother, Lance. He’s going to start working here next week and I was hoping you could show him around and introduce him to your animals.”

“I got it,” Katie says, grabbing his wrist and pulling him away towards the building. She finally stops at the huge fish tank right at the front of the exhibit. “Okay, one, it’s Pidge, not Katie. Two, I just need to check. To work here, you cannot - I repeat,  _ cannot _ \- be a homophobe. Too many of your coworkers would be LGBTQ+.”

Lance chuckles and pulls his hand away, holding both his hands in front of his chest. “Don’t worry, I’m not. I’m bi myself, and my sister is a lesbian, so it wouldn’t make much sense for me to be anti-LGBT.”

Pidge raises an eyebrow at him suspiciously and says, “What about trans? And non-binary?”

Lance laughs again and shakes his head. “One of my exes is a trans guy. Came out after we broke up, and we’re still friends. I’ve never met a non-binary person, but it’s not because I’m against it.”

“You’re wrong.”

Now it’s Lance’s turn to raise an eyebrow at Pidge. “Excuse me?”

“You’re wrong,” she says, “You have met a non-binary person. Me.”

Lance shrugs. “Cool. Doesn’t change who you are as a person. Now, can we continue the tour? When Veronica brought me out here, I was not expecting a lecture on not being a homophobe.”

Pidge grins and turns to the fish tank. They point out several different types of fish, before quickly moving on to the reptiles. They move around the building, almost too quickly for Lance to absorb any of the information, until the last enclosure. Pidge gestures to the two green snakes lounging on a branch behind the glass. “These are my favorite animals to work with. Our two Green Tree Pythons, Green and Trigel.”

Lance holds up a hand for her to stop talking. “Okay,” he says, “Why are so many of the animals named after colors? There’s Yellow the elephant, Green the snake, and I’m going to be working with a penguin named Blue.”

Pidge shrugs. “You’re going to the Voltron Show, right? You’ll find out then.”

That’s all they say before they’re pulling him out of the building and placing him right back next to where Veronica, Nadia, and Sylvio are still talking to Ina. Veronica smiles as she sees Pidge and Lance approaching.

“So,” she says, “what do you think of my brother?”

Pidge shrugs as she finally lets go of Lance’s arm. “He’ll do.”

The other four laugh as Pidge grins at him and Lance gapes at them.

“Well, see you four at the show!” Pidge waves at them and grabs Ina’s arm, dragging her back inside similar to how they’d done with Lance ten minutes ago.

Veronica laughs and shakes her head. “They’re… very energetic. C’mon.”

The four of them continue on, heading in the direction of the ‘Primates of the World’ and ‘Apes of Africa’ exhibits. Before they can enter the building though, Lance spies another 'Mold-A-Rama' machine, this time with an otter statue and he stops them so he can get it. He holds it for a few minutes as they go into the exhibit, but quickly shoves it into the backpack he’s wearing once it dries and cools.

As before with the ‘Small Mammals’ building, Veronica leads them through the exhibit, pointing out each different animal and stating a few facts about each. After that, they walk across the path to ‘Macaque Island’ for a few minutes before continuing on. Sylvio insists they go through the special Summer exhibit, ‘Brick Dinos’, which is pretty much a warehouse full of both miniature and life-size dinosaurs made of LEGOs. After a few minutes of arguing, Lance relents and takes him through. Once the two boys are done, the group move on to the Aviary exhibit, which is were Veronica works. But instead of guiding them through it herself, she calls over another keeper, as she’d done with the elephants and reptiles.

“Hi Veronica,” he says, “What’s up?”

Veronica gestures to Lance. “This is my little brother. He’s going to start working here soon, with the penguins and otters. I was hoping you could show him around the Aviary.”

The keeper nods and smiles at Lance. “Of course. Hello, my name is Shiro. In case you can’t tell, I work here in the Aviary with your sister.”

Lance grins and holds his hand out for a handshake. “The name’s Lance.”

Shiro chuckles and reaches forward to take the handshake. It’s only then that Lance notices that his right arm is a prosthetic. But Shiro doesn’t seem to pay much attention to it, so Lance doesn’t bother mentioning it. They talk for a little longer, about Lance’s job and what he can expect, before Shiro starts to show them around. He goes slower than Pidge had, but says so much that Lance gets about the same amount out of it that he had in the ‘Aquatic and Reptile Center’. He feels like he’s back in school, listening to a lecture on different types of birds.

Eventually, Shiro leads them out of the building and around to the side, where there’s an enclosure with a large white bird.

“This is Black,” he says, “She’s a Whooping Crane.”

“But she’s white!” Sylvio cries, “Why is she called Black?”

Shiro chuckles. “Nobody really knows. Alfor Voltron, the last owner of the Garrison County Zoo, is the one who named her. She was one of the last animals the zoo got before he died, so he never got to explain.”

Suddenly, Shiro’s phone starts buzzing in his pocket. He pulls it out and glances at it before turning it off and shoving it back in. “That was Keith,” he says to Veronica. “I have to go, the show is starting soon. Will you be in the audience?”

Veronica smirks and nods. “Considering Lance is supposed to take over for Coran once he’s ready, I think we’ll have to.”

“Cool. See you then.” And then he runs off.

“The heck was that about?” Lance asks as the four turn away.

“You’ll see. Come on, we need to head back over to the ‘Family Farm’,” Veronica says, quickening her pace into a jog.

* * *

Keith is biting his lip as Shiro finally steps backstage. “Where the hell were you?” he whisper-shouts at his brother.

“Giving a tour,” Shiro responds, “Now be quiet. Allura’s starting.”

Keith scowls and turns to face the stage as the dark-skinned woman steps out onto it.

“Hello!” she says in her thick British accent, “Welcome to the Voltron Show! My name is Allura Altea-Voltron, and I am the daughter of the man who used to own the Garrison County Zoo, Alfor Voltron. Unfortunately, he is no longer with us, as of two years ago. Since then, I have been working to put this show together as a way to honor him. This show will showcase five of my father’s favorite animals at this zoo. The penguins, Whooping Crane, Green Tree Pythons, elephants and last but certainly not least, the lions.” Keith can’t see it, but he knows that as she is speaking, images of each animal are appearing behind her. “To start off with, let’s have Coran take the stage to talk about his animals, the penguins!”

The audience applauds as the ginger man practically bounces onstage and Allura backs away to one of the sides.

“Hello everyone! My name is Coran, and I am the keeper in charge of our three penguins, Blue, Blaytz, and Plaxum.” As he talks, a live feed of the penguins appears behind him. Hidden cameras had been placed in the five exhibits a few weeks beforehand. “Now, you may notice something odd about their names. Blue is named that because her original keeper’s favorite color was blue. Blaytz is named after that keeper, one of Alfor’s best friends. Plaxum was named by Allura, and she seems to have picked up on her father’s naming habits, as Plaxum was one of Allura’s best friends before she, her parents, and I all moved here to America.”

After explaining the names, Coran talks about the penguins for about five minutes before they have to move on.

“Thank you, Coran,” Allura says, moving back into the center stage as Coran bounces off. “Yes, I did name a penguin after my best friend.” The audience chuckles at that. “Next we’ll have Shiro come up to talk about our Whooping Crane!”

Again the audience applauds and Allura moves to the side as Shiro walks onstage, waving to the audience.

“Hi! I’m Shiro. I work in the Aviary, along with some other keepers. One of which is sitting in the audience right now. Care to wave, Veronica?” Keith can’t see his brother’s smirk from where he’s standing, but he knows it’s there as the audience laughs and Veronica presumably waves from in the audience. After it quiets down, Shiro starts talking about Whooping Cranes, and Black specifically.

The show continues like this, Allura giving an introduction and a keeper going onstage to talk about that specific animal. Pidge goes out to talk about Trigel and Green, and Hunk goes out to talk about Gyrgan and Yellow.

Eventually, it’s Keith’s turn.

Shiro pats him on the shoulder as he takes a deep breath and slowly makes his way onto the stage to the audience’s applause.

_ God, what if I don’t remember what I’m supposed to say? What if I forget and make a fool of myself in front of all these people? _

He clears his throat, tries to push those thoughts away, and starts to speak.

“Hello. My name is Keith. I work with our two lions, Alfor and Red.” This is when the live feed is supposed to appear, but he can’t turn around so he doesn’t know if it actually does. “Yes, Alfor is named after Alfor Voltron. He was the first animal that we got after he passed away, and since lions were his favorite animal, Allura thought it would be nice to name a lion after him.” He takes a breath again and goes into the informational part of his speech. Pretty quickly into it, he realizes this is almost exactly like the few times he’s spoken to school groups on field trips, and it becomes much easier after that. Before he even realizes it, he’s finished speaking and is on his way offstage.

Shiro meets him backstage, arms crossed over his chest, smirking. “See? Now that wasn’t so hard, was it?”

Keith just huffs and keeps walking. His shift is over in five minutes anyway.

* * *

Lance’s breath hitches as the lion keeper walks onstage. He was not expecting to get a crush on a co-worker before he even starts, but that might be happening.

Veronica chuckles as she watches his reaction to the man on stage.

“Damn,” he mutters to his sister, “You have some good-looking co-workers. Tell me about him?”

She smirks and leans closer to his ear to whisper. “Keith Kogane. Works in the ‘Big Cats’ exhibit, prefers to work with the lions. Shiro’s adopted younger brother. He’s also super gay.”

Lance scowls and smacks Veronica’s arm at the last comment. “I didn’t need to know  _ that. _ ”

She just chuckles again and shrugs. “Just watch the show.”

He sighs and does what he’s told. For a few seconds. After a bit, he turns back to his sister. “I thought the keeper you knew in the ‘Big Cats’ was out today?”

Veronica shakes her head and sighs. “James is. I only know so much about Keith because Shiro talks about him. Besides, he’s super standoff-ish and probably wouldn’t have shown us around, even if I’d asked. Now just  _ watch the freaking show. _ It’s not much longer. Keith is the last presenter.”

Lance groans and turns back to the stage. But Keith is already making his way off.

The dark-skinned woman, Allura, re-takes center stage. She says a few more things, and the show ends. The crowd stands and makes their way out of the theater. Lance gets up as well and follows Veronica, Nadia, and Sylvio towards the gift shop.

But his mind is still on Keith.

Sure, he’s dated lots of pretty people. Mostly girls, but there have been a few boys here and there. But he’s never seen someone  _ that _ beautiful. Even Allura - who he’d thought looked like a goddess when she’d first come out on stage - was nothing compared to Keith.

It’s almost embarrassing how much he’s thinking about this guy when all he knows is that he works with lions, he’s adopted, he’s super standoffish, and he’s gay. As soon as Lance realizes this, he pushes his attention away from Keith and back to his family.

They’ve made it into the gift shop now. Sylvio has taken his hand and dragged him over to the giant plushie snakes and is looking through all of them, trying to decide which one he wants. A quick glance over the store informs him that Veronica is following Nadia, who is weaving through all of the different stuffed animals, obviously looking for one in particular. Probably a polar bear.

During this glance, Lance sees something that catches his eye. A rack of keychains.

_ Since I got the otter statue, I wonder if they have any penguins. _

He squats down next to Sylvio and places his hand on his shoulder to get his attention.

“I’m gonna go look for something, okay? When you’ve picked out your snake, come find me or Veronica. I’ll be looking at the keychains,” he says. Sylvio nods and Lance stands back up and makes his way over to the rack. After about a minute of spinning the rack and looking through all of the keychains, Lance finds the one he wanted. It’s a small blue metal square with the letters  _ GCZ _ in the center of it. On the left side of the square is a penguin silhouette. Since Sylvio hasn’t come to find him yet, he decides to go back to the plushie snakes.

He stands up from where he’d been leaning over and immediately bumps into someone standing behind him at the sugar tube station.

* * *

Keith isn’t that surprised when the man at the keychain rack bumps into him. He clearly wasn’t paying attention to anything else and hadn’t noticed when Keith had stood directly behind him to fill the plastic tube with flavored sugar.

“Crap!” the man says, “Sorry, man!” Keith turns to face him. “I didn’t know you were…” The words seem to die on his tongue as he studies Keith’s face. Keith, of course, notices that the man is… well, he’s kinda cute. He hopes he’s not blushing. He also hopes this man comes often. He wouldn’t be fully against that.

Keith sighs. “Look, it’s okay. You didn’t see me. It’s alright. I’m not a jerk.” He nods to the man and turns back around.

Not ten seconds later, a little boy and girl run up to them from across the gift shop, shouting, “ _ Tío Lance! Tío Lance! _ ” A woman is following behind them, chuckling. She has to jog so she doesn’t lose them in the gift shop. Since they’re right behind him, he can’t help but overhear their conversation, even if he can’t understand most of it.

“¡ _ Mira _ !” the little boy says, “ _ ¡Tengo una serpiente de juguete! _ ”

“ _ ¡Y tengo un oso polar! _ ” the girl chimes in.

The man, Lance, laughs and squats down to their level. “ _ Muy bien, Nadia y Sylvio, _ ” he says, “ _ Tengo un llavero de pinganillo. ¿La tía Verónica está recibiendo algo? _ ”

At ‘Veronica’, Keith glances at the woman. He knows that Shiro works with someone named Veronica, he’d called her out at the show today. He wonders if it’s her. Veronica, still chuckling, shakes her head at Lance, Nadia, and Sylvio. Keith doesn’t know enough Spanish to know how they’re related, but he can tell that they are family.

Just as Keith is turning back to the sugar machine, she glances in his direction.

“Keith?” she asks.

_ Guess it is her, _ he thinks. He forces a smile onto his face and turns to face the four. “Yeah, that’s me. You must be Veronica? Shiro’s friend?”

Veronica smiles and holds out her hand for a handshake. Keith takes it. “Yup, that’s me.” She starts to point to the other three around them. “And this is L-”

Keith cuts her off, pointing for her. “Lance, Nadia, and Sylvio. I…may have overheard.”

Veronica chuckles and pulls her hand back. “Yeah, that’s pretty easy to do with our family. Us McClains are very  _ loud. _ ” She says the last word very pointedly, glaring at her family.

“ _ Lo sentimos tía Verónica, _ ” Nadia and Sylvio say, at the same time Lance says, “Sorry V.”

Veronica huffs and turns back to Keith. “Lance got a job here, and he’s starting next week. I figured I would show him around, introduce him to some of his future co-workers.”

Keith raises an eyebrow and turns to Lance, who’s still squatting next to the two kids. “What animals?”

Lance raises his eyes to Keith, but they quickly flick back down to the ground. Keith hadn’t even realized Lance wasn’t looking at him. “Otters and penguins. Looks like I’ll be working with Coran.”

Keith chuckles at the thought of the ginger. It’s hard not to. “You’ll like him. He’s a really fun guy. The last few weeks, rehearsing for the Voltron show, have mostly been fun because of him.” Just as he’s finishing his statement, his phone starts to vibrate in his pocket. He pulls it out and glances at it before turning back to the McClains. “It’s my mother, so I’m probably late for dinner. See you around, Veronica. Lance, see you next week.” He smiles and waves to them before going to pay for his sugar tube and leave.

And if he slightly changes his routine so he and Lance are in some areas at the same time the next week, well, that’s not important.

**Author's Note:**

> Oof this came to be because I recently spent a whole day at the Milwaukee County Zoo and my brain only speaks in Voltron. They eat lunch the exact same way I did, and follow the same path my family took. Nadia's obsession with the polar bear is based on my sister's obsession with the same animal. I even made a joke in the farm that the cow was Kaltenecker. (Of course, nobody understood it.)  
And yes, Lance formerly living in Green Bay is based off of my real life as well.
> 
> **Translations:**  
¡_Mira_! _¡Tengo una serpiente de juguete!_ \- Look! I got a toy snake!  
_¡Y tengo un oso polar!_ \- And I got a polar bear!  
_Muy bien, Nadia y Sylvio. Tengo un llavero de pinganillo. ¿La tía Verónica está recibiendo algo?_ \- Very good, Nadia and Sylvio. I have a penguin keychain. Is Aunt Veronica getting anything?  
_Lo sentimos tía Verónica._ \- We're sorry Aunt Veronica.  



End file.
